Egg Prices Are the Cheapest They’ve Been in a Decade

Call it a golden age for bodybuilders with questionable eating habits. Egg prices are so cheap right now you can suck down a dozen raw eggs for less than you might pay for a Gatorade. In fact, egg prices are the lowest they’ve been in over a decade – and it appears they’ll probably remain a cheap source of protein for much of 2017.

According to Bloomberg, the average price for a dozen eggs at retail last month was $1.414 – the lowest price for the month since 2006 and a 52 percent drop since the all-time record high of $2.966 in September 2015. You probably don’t have to be an economist to guess that this new low and that record high are related: Indeed, in 2015, a bird flu outbreak sent prices through the roof which in turn led farmers with healthy birds to get their hens a’ cluckin’. Now that the bird flu epidemic is over, we have a glut and prices have plummeted. “The market was temporarily starved for eggs, and now it’s drowning," Tom Elam, president of the consulting firm FarmEcon, was quoted as saying. “There’s just too many eggs out there.”

Analysist believe that egg prices aren’t even done dropping. Overall supplies are estimated to grow 1.3 percent this year while costs are expected to drop as much 6 percent. The government says it’s possible egg prices could actually drop more this year than any other food group. And supplies are expected to be even higher next year—though just as the previous price explosion begat this current low, experts expect the market will once again stabilize itself at some point in the not-too-distant future. So get while the getting is good and drink up! Or maybe be less gross and make an omelet or something?